Site News  |   Monitor Keywords  |   Monitor Archive  |   Organizer  |   Account Info  |

Interactive electronic coupon method and system

Interactive electronic coupon method and system description/claims

The present invention is related to marketed offers, and particularly to such systems and methods that provide an interactive offer.

Some conventional offers, such as coupons, mailers, and other print media, provide an indication of when a customer uses the coupon. In particular, a retailer or marketer is able to determine when the customer responds to an offer when the customer makes a purchase using the coupon associated with the offer.

However, a retailer or marketer cannot easily or efficiently determine what interest, if any, a customer has in an offer based on actions other than a purchase associated with the offer. Specifically, short of the customer redeeming the printed coupon associated with the offer to complete a purchase, a retailer or marketer cannot determine with any certainty that the offer piqued any interest in the customer. Without such knowledge of what potential customer interests are driven by the offer, the retailer/marketer is at a loss in refining the offer to better appeal to potential customers. Additionally, surveys and other conventional attempts to track and measure customer action, reaction, and interests other than a purchase to offers and incentives may be costly, inefficient, and unreliable. In some respects, difficulty in determining interests of potential customers is complicated by a desire of customers to maintain a sense of privacy.

Accordingly, it would be desirable to efficiently determine what interest(s) other than a purchase an offer generates from a customer.

According to an aspect of the present invention, a method includes establishing a relationship between a marketer and a trusted third party; establishing a relationship between a customer and the trusted third party; receiving, by the trusted third party from the customer via an electronic communication, an indication of an expressed interest in an offer by the customer, the expressed interest being an action other than a purchase associated with the offer; and outputting information associated with the indication of the expressed interest in the offer to the marketer.

In some aspects of the invention, a method includes activation of the offer to a usable form by the trusted third party. The trusted third party may initiate the activation at the direction of the customer. The activated offer may be electronically communicated to a retailer associated with the activated offer.

In some embodiments, the trusted third party may keep private from the marketer at least a portion of customer identifying data based on at least one of the relationship between the customer and the trusted third party, a relationship between the customer and the offer, and the relationship between the marketer and the trusted third party.

In another aspect of the present disclosure, the expressed interest in the offer by the customer may be at least one of viewing of the offer by the customer, saving the offer by the customer, associating the offer with the customer, notifying others of the offer by the customer, comparing the offer with other offers, a request to activate the offer by the customer, declining to participate in the offer by the customer, and combinations thereof.

In some embodiments, the marketer may notify the trusted third party to modify at least one term of the offer. The trusted third party may notify the marketer of customer preferences associated with the offer. In yet another aspect herein, the marketer may notify the trusted third party that the customer has made a purchase associated with the offer.

The present disclosure further relates to methods and systems that may include initiating an auction regarding a plurality of offers on a behalf of the customer by the trusted third party, where the auction is initiated based on the relationship between the trusted third party and the marketer.

In some aspects of the present disclosure, a system including a memory storing processor-executable instructions and a processor in communication with the memory and operative in conjunction with the memory to execute the stored instructions is provided. The processor may be operative to establish a relationship between a marketer and a trusted third party; establish a relationship between a customer and the trusted third party; receive, by the trusted third party from the customer via an electronic communication, an indication of an expressed interest in an offer by the customer, the expressed interest being an action other than a purchase associated with the offer; and output, by the trusted third party, information associated with the indication of the expressed interest in the offer to the marketer.

In some embodiments herein, a medium having machine-executable instructions stored thereon is provided. The medium may include instructions to establish a relationship between a marketer and a trusted third party; instructions to establish a relationship between a customer and the trusted third party; instructions to receive, by the trusted third party from the customer via an electronic communication, an indication of an expressed interest in an offer by the customer, the expressed interest being an action other than a purchase associated with the offer; and instructions to output, by the trusted third party, information associated with the indication of the expressed interest in the offer to the marketer.

Therefore, it should now be apparent that the invention substantially achieves all the above aspects and advantages. Additional aspects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description that follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. Various features and embodiments are further described in the following figures, description and claims.

The accompanying drawings illustrate presently preferred embodiments of the invention and, together with the general description given above and the detailed description given below, serve to explain the principles of the invention. As shown throughout the drawings, like reference numerals designate like or corresponding parts.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a system, according to aspects of the present invention; and

FIG. 2 is a flow chart of an exemplary process, according to aspects herein; and

• Provisional Patent
• Utility Patent

• What Is a Patent?
• What Is a Trademark or Servicemark?
• What Is a Copyright?
• Patent Laws